Edgewood Gallery exhibits the sculpture of Arlene Abend

Courtesy of Arlene Abend A 30-YEAR retrospective of work by Syracuse-artist Arlene Abend remains on view at the EdgeÂ´wood Gallery through Dec. 31. This cast bronze piece, titled âVision,â dates from 1978.

If you're at all involved in Syracuse's visual arts community, you'll know that Arlene Abend is a long-standing fixture.

Abend, who turns 80 in June, has been teaching, creating and exhibiting sculpture throughout the Syracuse area for more than three decades. At an age when many decide to slow down, to reflect on their life's accomplishments and relish the luxury of free time, this feisty artist continues to prove she has every intention to keep moving the bar.

Through Dec. 31, visitors to the Edgewood Gallery on Tecumseh Road can take in a more than 30-year retrospective of Abend's work in an exhibition aptly titled "The Sculpture of Arlene Abend." The show is weighted toward works completed over the past 15 years (with most of it completed over the past decade) but there are a few pieces from the 1970s providing a then-and-now perspective to this artist's creative arc. Abend works in steel and cast resin, incorporating the figure or figurative elements into much of her work. The earliest piece in the show, "Breaking Out," (1973) provides an early example of her work in resin and is rife with tension and drama.

In this piece, Abend casts the upper torso of a female with arms and hands pushing upward against the top of the resin cube in which they're apparently trapped. It's a compelling piece and foreshadows some of the imagery Abend embraces in the ensuing years.

Thirty-seven years later -- in 2010 -- she revisits the angst in a piece titled "Fascinating Failure," a cast resin work that evokes the same emotional tension and figurative elements we saw in the earlier piece.

In a cast bronze work from 1978 titled "Vision," Abend abandons the figure, focusing more intently on form. This piece, which I consider to be one of the strongest in the show, demonstrates a clear concern for three-dimensional spatial construction and pierced form. I have a feeling walking around the piece, exploring the changing relationships between different shapes and lines would have been rewarding but was impossible to do in this venue because the piece was placed against a wall. Sculpture is a three-dimensional medium and it needs to be viewed as such. In recent years, Abend has integrated steel figures with cast resin creating surreal environments. She casts these male and female sticklike figures as characters in ambiguous narratives, existing within their own frozen moments in time.

In "Emerging," (2009), the figures penetrate the top of the resin cube; a male and female figure emerging from their confinement, breaking through their hermetically sealed existence.

The most recent works, a series of cut and welded steel wall pieces, demonstrate Abend's stellar technique as a welder. In "Laugh Lines I, II and III," (2010), she welds together gracefully arcing pieces of steel to create decorative organic forms.

It's clear Abend enjoys the challenges of various media, shifting among resin, steel and bronze with alacrity. "Exploring materials leads to new forms and directions and a greater range of expression," she's stated.

Abend has covered a lot of creative turf over the past 30 years, but she probably believes there are still many more miles to walk.

Katherine Rushworth, of Cazenovia, is a former director of the Michael C. Rockefeller Arts Center (State University College at Fredonia) and of the Central New York Institute for the Arts in Education. Reach her at features@syracuse.com.